The Montreal Canadiens were visiting a struggling Calgary Flames side on Wednesday, and contrary to what one might have expected when taking on a team with a 1-6-0 record since the start of the season, it wasn’t a walk in the park. The beginning of the game was delayed because the lights at the Calgary Saddledome just wouldn’t come on. Still, in the end, they elected to start the game with partly lit lights, which gave it a look reminiscent of a game played about 50 years ago with poor lighting. Thankfully, the situation was eventually resolved.

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Road Warrior

Wednesday night’s game was the Canadiens' fourth on the road this season, and in every single one of those games, Zachary Bolduc found the back of the net. The winger scored with a laser of a shot on the power play, a bit higher in the zone that he usually plays on the man-advantage, but he does have a way to find space for himself, and that’s precisely what he did on that sequence. With an assist on the play, Nick Suzuki joined Rejean Houle in 34th place for the most assists registered with the Canadiens.

Bolduc also shone at the other end of the ice in the second frame when Jakub Dobes’ net was under attack and the netminder was unable to catch a shot with his glove. He tied up his man to prevent him from tying up the game.

The Battle Of The Goalies

The last time the two teams met in March, the Flames had secured a 1-0 win over the Habs, and the goaltenders were the same as tonight: Dobes for the Habs and Dustin Wolf for the Flames. On that night, Wolf was flawless while Dobes was credited with a loss but had a .958 save percentage.

In the second frame, Calgary dominated Montreal 18-9 shots-wise, and Dobes stopped every single one of those shots. Clearly, he didn’t want to see history repeat itself. With 12 minutes left in the game, Dobes had already faced 34 shots while the Habs had only tested his counterpart 22 times. But Wolf did have to stop a couple of breakaways and even frustrated Suzuki, who knocked on the door in the third all alone with a fantastic deke. This was Wolf’s first loss against the Canadiens, but he certainly wasn’t at fault.

The only goal given by Dobes came off a bad Noah Dobson turnover, and the young goaltender earned his fourth win in as many starts. He finished the game with 36 saves on 37 shots for a .973 save percentage.

Consistency Is Still Key

Last season, the Canadiens struggled with consistency. In the same game, they could be playing like a Cup contender one period and then turn into a draft lottery-worthy team in the next. That’s not out of the ordinary for such a young team, but chances are Martin St-Louis was hoping to see fewer instances of that this season. Unfortunately, in their last three games, the Canadiens have had good starts but struggled to maintain them for 60 minutes.

Against the New York Rangers on Saturday night, they jumped to an early two-goal lead before the Blueshirts scored four unanswered goals. On Monday night, against the Buffalo Sabres, they struggled in the second frame, as the visitors took 11 shots while they could only manage four. This time, the Flames put 18 shots on net in the second frame, and had it not been for Dobes’ heroics, the host would have been ahead after it.

Patient Beyond His Years

Earlier this season, Ivan Demidov displayed great patience when he scored the equalizing goal against the Seattle Kraken. He got the puck in the slot and instead of shooting, he took his time to take a shot he knew would find the back of the net. Tonight, in overtime, the rookie showed the same patience, but this time, to gave Mike Matheson the time to sneak up on the Flames’ defense and score an easy goal when the Russian dished out a picture-perfect pass from very deep in the offensive zone.

Every time he makes that kind of play, I wonder how long it will take the coach to put him on the first power play. The kid oozes talent and really makes the most of his time on ice. The Canadiens headed to Edmonton immediately after the game, as they’ll be taking on the Oilers on Thursday night with Samuel Montembeault in net.

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